GOLEM

According to Jewish legends, a golem is a creature moulded from dust or clay by a scholar and brought to life by ritual incantations. The golem relates to its human creator as a helper, companion or protector of its threatened community. But the experiment is derailed: the creature turns against its creator. This myth of artificial life lies at the heart of Thomas Ryckewaert’s new creation. It is a story about ambition, creativity, power, creation, madness and destruction. It is a theme that touches on the age-old fear of creating something that outwits us: from the Bible about Frankenstein to the spectre of artificial intelligence. It is a story that asks the same question in every era: how deep can we dig?

In hushed, cinematic imagery, Golem balances on the thin line between man and matter, between reason and fear. Face to face with a creature that looks very much like him but is at the same time fundamentally different, man is shown a mirror. He sees monsters being born in things, in the other, in himself.